After seeing ‘PROMO’ for the thousandth time in my intel & militia channels, I finally realized that ‘PROMO’ is not the secret word for a black-ops fleet, some new troll slang, nor is it the go word for a mass infiltration and corp-theft operation.

So what does it mean? I decided it was finally time to investigate this unusual phenomenon and turned to my lovable militia pals for the scoop.

After asking how it worked, Jhaelee de’Aurvie from the Amarr Militia explained, “You give them ISK, which is then like casino chips which you can use to play little quick/mindless lotteries. Winnings can be kept, turned into more ‘credit’ or traded back for its isk value.

It is fun and mindless, they make a ton because each lot only resolves once each number has been paid for (equalling around twice the prize’s value).”

Members play frequently. Oppon’s Pull of Caldari Militia said, “I play whenever I’m on EvE, I have Blink up in a window, though you can play it out of game too.”

“Be warned though, clicking on that will slowly drain your wallet and ability to do anything else in EVE.” cautioned Jhaelee de’Aurvie.

So how much can you win? Lots, apparently. Jhaelee had already won a Phoenix, a Pilgrim, and a ‘bunch of interceptors’. Oppon’s Pull has won a Machariel and a Vindicator so far. Predator Elite claims to have a corpmate who has won over ’30 billion and counting from Blink”.

Afterwards, I spoke with Somerset Mahn of SOMERblink, to get an interview.

Are you the creator of it?

Yes, that’s right. I handle all the programming and was the original creator. We have a staff of about twenty-five now.

I’ve been holding lotteries since Feb 2010. But originally they were the classic style, the kind you see on the forums– send money to a player with a special reason code, and your tickets show up eventually on a tracker. Blink is kind of the logical extension of that– it moves a lot faster because tickets are purchased immediately. So I sat down in September and wrote a beta, and the rest is history 😛

Was it expensive to start-up?

The biggest assets Blink has are its code, and trust 😛 I’ve been third-partying supercapitals and other lotteries for a couple of years now, and I’m grateful people trust me enough with their ISK to play on the site. That’s a much higher barrier to entry.

ISK-wise, people start their own Blinks for prizes, so we only buy the prizes once the Blink has completed. Of course, that takes an average of 3 and a half minutes. So we keep busy 😛

Do you have any tips or advice for someone who is just trying it out?

Definitely join the chat channel, SOMER Lotteries, everybody there can always help with any questions. If you check back often, you’ll see “Promo Blinks”– they’re free to enter and you can win some pretty nice stuff.

Nope, you can play Blink from any web browser- we have a lot of people who play on their smartphones from work or school. You have to deposit money using Eve, though– no way to do that outside the game.

How much does an average player spend?

Our cheapest Blinks are just 2 million ISK– so a bunch of people might toss in 2-3 mil every so often just to have a go 🙂 some people spend a lot more, of course. I don’t really know the actual numbers there.

What’s the biggest prize someone’s won?

Well, during our celebration events is when we give away the largest prizes. So far we’ve given away– this isn’t an exhaustive list because I don’t remember– a Revenant, a Nyx, an Avatar, 4 Utus, 2 Adrestias, a Mimir, a Freki, a Vangel, a Malice, and 90 billion ISK. I’m pretty sure there are more grand prizes that I’ve forgotten, though 😛

The biggest win was probably the guy that won the Avatar with about 20 million ISK of tickets 😛 that was a big return.

How often do you do celebration events?

Well, it just depends on how long it takes us to get to the next 10T marker. It’s usually about 4-6 weeks between events. Gives everyone a break in between, staff included 😛

Do you have anything else you want to add?

Hmm, sure. We try to give back to the Eve community– we’re the largest single donator I know of to Eve University, we set up an endowment at Agony PVP-U, and we sponsored a tournament for Red Vs Blue. We’ve also given away around 3 and a half trillion ISK of free promo prizes.

Very nice. Thank you for your time, I appreciate it.

Always appreciated! Would you like a promo code or anything to offer people? I don’t know your target audience

Yes, that’d be great. So how would one use that?

Use ‘FWRules’ on the promo code box on the registration page, we’ll give them a little free credit to Blink with– 2.5M. (note: You must register using the in-game EvE browser, make sure you add it to your trusted sites, then you’re free to play out of game as well. Good luck!)

The recently concluded December CSM summit included a focused discussion about the Faction Warfare system improvement possibilities that CCP is considering, possibly as early as Summer Expansion.

Everyone should take the time to read carefully, but keep in mind that these are just ideas at the earliest planning stages, so there is still opportunity for us as a community to be heard and provide feedback.

I also encourage you all to provide both CCP and the CSM your feedback on the subject in the proper feedback thread.
Here is the excerpt from the December 2011 CSM summit minutes:

“CCP has begun some concept work on how they want FW to evolve in the medium- to long-term.
Some iterations to FW may be possible as soon as summer 2012. They would like to merge the FW
and 0.0 sov system capture mechanics somewhat, but are not happy with either of the current
mechanics.

CCP would like to inject some of the drama that surrounds the CSM election system into FW, by
having some sort of in-game election of militia leaders/admirals. This would help move some of the
0.0 style politics/revenge/spying into FW. Another important addition to this system would be some
real power/consequences for system ownership, such as the elected leaders being able to set things
like tax rates in lowsec stations that they control (and having some of this tax ISK flow to the
faction). The leadership would be able to set strategic goals as well as adjust settings for the new FW benefits.

Some of the CSM members expressed some concern that FW issues would greatly impact pirate
organizations that live in the area, and wanted to make sure that non-FW entities would be able to
neutralize FW control in some way (by blowing stuff up, preferably). CCP agreed to take that into
account when designing the system, but that the important thing was to make FW meaningful and
fun.

CCP mentioned that letting alliances join FW was supposed to be a Crucible feature, but was not
completed in time. It will be released in the very near future, so that groups that want to participate
in FW don’t need to break up their existing social structures in order to join. Some CSM members
noted that this, in addition to the election mechanics, would allow nullsec entities to co-opt FW
groups.

On the question of where FW revenues would go, CCP suggested that they would be able to be used
for system upgrades; an example was to increase LP payouts or something similar.
The CSM suggested that one of the major issues with lowsec was the large increase in risk with a
much smaller increase in rewards. It was suggested that allowing FW upgrades to decrease risk, such
as making probes less effective in a system, would help draw people into lowsec. This brought up a
side conversation about how the current probing mechanics has negatively impacted tactics like
sniping, which is an issue CCP is aware of.

CCP suggested that in the long term, they would like to see the possibility of FW folks taking over
nearby high and nullsec systems, and turning them into FW-controlled systems. Some CSMs
suggested that FW could be used as a testbed for new capture mechanics, since FW would be
smaller scale than nullsec.

The CSM presented a list of smaller issues that were raised by the FW community. CCP promised to
look at the list, but pointed out that issues that had to do with Crimewatch (the system that
manages aggression timers, security status hits, criminal flags and other lowsec mechanics) were
unlikely to be addressed without the Crimewatch rewrite that CCP is planning.”

Here is the source of the full minutes, and the response thread where you can speak out in response to this “new direction” for Faction Warfare.

“We will be doing a war themed expansion in the first half of this year as stated by CCP Unifex, the new Senior Producer of EVE, in this recent blog. It’s not unlikely that Factional Warfare will get some love and tender care along the way.

There are also some important changes to Factional Warfare coming even sooner than that and we are actually making a video in the next days that should cast a light on those, among other things.” CCP Guard, from this thread.

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Sovereignty Wars

Character: Elisen

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